My interpretation of the comic is that the woman’s first instinct was to feign interest to prevent any toxic behavior being directed to her. Then the man told her to disregard that and simply reject him which she does, then her instinct is proven right.
That to me signifies that she did not feel safe to reject him.
The way I understood your argument is that this fear of rejecting a man from panel 1, or assuming a bad reaction is “sexist” because “Men are not a monolith”. I’m not sure this is appropriate to the point the comic is trying to make.
Maybe I’m misunderstanding then.
My interpretation of the comic is that the woman’s first instinct was to feign interest to prevent any toxic behavior being directed to her. Then the man told her to disregard that and simply reject him which she does, then her instinct is proven right.
That to me signifies that she did not feel safe to reject him.
The way I understood your argument is that this fear of rejecting a man from panel 1, or assuming a bad reaction is “sexist” because “Men are not a monolith”. I’m not sure this is appropriate to the point the comic is trying to make.